Abstract

Like other crops, chickpea is also attacked by various diseases and insect-pests, out of which fusarial wilt and pod borer of chickpea are most severe; there are many methods such as breeding and cultivation of resistant varieties, use of chemical fungicides and insecticides for management of fusarial wilt of chickpea. However, increasing use of chemical fungicides and insecticides in plant protection results in several serious hazardous problems. Continuous uses of these chemical substances disturb our ecological equilibrium, result in increase of human diseases, problems of resistance in pests, pathogens and weed population. This problem can be minimized by using biological control agents under an integrated pest/ disease management programme. Therefore, in the present investigation, it was observed that application of bio-pesticide formulations in the laboratory, as well as in the field conditions showed significant performance in controlling wilt diseases.

Key words: Tricoderma viride, Tricoderma harzianum, fusarial wilt.